China Mobile (CHL) says in the first three quarters of 2007, the Group's operating revenue reached CNY258.465 billion, representing an increase of 21.5% compared to the same period of last year.
Profit attributable to shareholders reached CNY59.880 billion, representing an increase of 29.8% compared to the same period of last year. Margin of profit attributable to shareholders continued to maintain at a relatively high level of 23.2%. Benefiting from the rapid growth of the economy of China, enormous demand in the telecommunications market and rationalized competition environment, the Group maintained a rapid and healthy business development in the first three quarters of 2007.
The Group made great efforts to extend the rural market, where subscriber growth continued to maintain a rapid growth momentum and the average monthly net additional subscribers for the first three quarters was close to 5.40 million, and total subscribers reached 349.66 million as at 30 September 2007. Through appropriate adjustment to the fee rate structure, voice usage volume was effectively boosted and total voice usage increased by 45.2% compared to the same period of the previous year.
Value-added business also continued its rapid growth and Short Message Service usage volume increased by 43.2% compared to the same period of the previous year. Value-added business such as "Color Ring", WAP and MMS made an increasingly remarkable contribution to the operating revenue, and business such as "Wireless Music Club", "Fetion", "Mobile Paper" also showed rapid growth.